It’s hard to miss! I regularly see the BRAG Awards everywhere on social media: writing blogs for indie writers, and highly-acclaimed books with the BRAG medallion on their covers, etc.

What is your book about?

Brake Failure is about Ruby, an English debutante who ends up in Kansas City. Far from home, she transforms from Miss-Perfectly-Correct to criminally insane as she breaks the bonds of her rigid upbringing. Sheriff Hank Gephart tries to reel her in but she’s out of control and she ain’t hitting the brakes.

Who are your secondary characters in your book?

Ruby’s snobbish step-sister, Claire, who continually belittles Ruby. Rowdy the stray mongrel. Idabel, a Survivalist, who teaches Ruby how to shoot a gun and dig a man trap.

Do you take personality traits from real people and use them for your characters?

No. My characters come into my head fully formed.

Why did you choose to write your story leading up to the Y2K Meltdown?

Because it was fascinating! This was something that had never happened before in history. I lived through Y2K in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. Television reports veered from “Just stock up as if for a tornado” to “run for the hills!!”

Nobody knew what was going to happen when the date on computers changed to four zeroes. The US government had a command center and spent $150 billion on preparing for Armageddon. I’m surprised nobody has written about this time in American history.

Why did you choose the romance genre to write in?

I like to write what I, myself, would choose to read. And I always like a little romance.

Which character in your story are you particular to?

Idabel, the tough Survivalist, who is preparing to battle against hordes of ravaging looters. When Ruby gives Idabel a box of blonde hair-colorant and cherry lip-gloss, Idabel stares at them wordlessly. Then she says: “Well, if we don’t survive, we’ll die real pretty.”

How long did it take you to write this story and what was your process?

Off and on for a fifteen year. I made notes before and during Y2K. When I got back to England I wrote the skeleton of the story and forgot about it. I finally wrote it a couple of years ago. (Sometimes it’s better to write a story long after an event because the things you remember are usually the sharpest, and most interesting.

Where can readers buy your book?

Brake Failure is on Amazon kindle. I hope to be publishing all my books in paperback by the end of the year.

ZENKA is not a romcom. It is a darkly comic crime thriller/suspense with a hint of romance. Zenka is a Hungarian pole-dancer, capricious, devious and loyal. When London mob boss, Jack Murray, saves her life she vows to become his guardian angel – whether he likes it or not. With shocking consequences.

Is there a message you would like to give to your readers?

I never start my books with a BANG! I build slowly at first, then gather speed – faster and faster – while injecting twists and turns, until that rug-pulling moment. I usually have multi-strands in my stories so I make sure that these strands all come together in the end, like someone pulling tight the purse-strings of a pouch.

News Press:

Reviews for her debut, FACE TO FACE: “Fun to snuggle up with” –GOOD HOUSEKEEPING Pick of the Paperbacks. “Vane but wildly funny leading lady” -Scottish Daily Mail.

Brodie has now gone “indie”. Here are some editorial reviews for her recent books.

BRAKE FAILURE: “Masterpiece of humor” -Midwest Book Review

THE DOUBLE: “Proof of her genius in writing fiction” -San Francisco Book Review.

ZENKA (to be released 6 Nov, 2017): “ZENKA is top of my list for best fiction this year. If Tina Fey and Simon Pegg got together to write a dark and hilarious mobster story with a happy ending, ZENKA would be the result.” -Lauren Sapala, WriteCity

We are delighted that Stephanie has chosen to interview Alison Brodie who is the author of, Brake Failure, our medallion honoree at indieBRAG. To be awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion ®, a book must receive unanimous approval by a group of our readers. It is a daunting hurdle and it serves to reaffirm that a book such as, A Dog for Leo, merits the investment of a reader’s time and money.

I’d like to welcome Award Winning Author Lis Anna-Langston to Layered Pages. Lis is a Parents’ Choice Gold Book Award winner, a Moonbeam Children’s Book Award winner and the Dante Rossetti First Place Award winner for YA Fiction. She is the author of Tupelo Honey, Skinny Dipping in a Dirty Pond and the short story collection, Tolstoy & the Checkout Girl. Born in the South she loves writing about misfits, screw ups, outlaws and people who generally don’t fit into nicely labeled boxes. She loves zany, wild rides and is the recipient of many awards including; a two-time Pushcart nominee, a five-time WorldFest winner, Telluride IndieFest winner, Helene Wurlitzer Grant recipient, New Century Writers winner, a finalist in the prestigious William Faulkner Competition, & Second Place Winner of the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Award. She writes Young Adult, New Adult and Middle Grade novels and loves every second of it.

I have entered many contests in my career but this is the first book I’ve had go to print. So, I created a list of book award contests and entered. Parents’ Choice, Moonbeam, Literary Classics and IndieBRAG were all on the list and I entered and won each one.

Tell me about your book, Tupelo Honey.

Well, each person sees the book slightly differently. I think this story is about a little girl trying to manage the insanity of her family. I really loved Teresa DiFalco’s review from Parents’ Choice Awards. I think she summed it up so well:

“Tupelo Honey is a delight. Set in rural Mississippi, with a cast of colorful southerners, it stars one pretty dysfunctional family at the center of which is Tupelo Honey. Author Lis Anna-Langston gets into the head of her title girl completely, taking readers on a ride of a sort of haunted but beautiful mess. To paraphrase Tolstoy, it’s the unhappy families that are unique — and by definition, often more interesting. Tupelo Honey does not have an easy life, on the surface. Her mother is a drug addict, and mental illness lingers in her grandmother Marmalade’s house like a hot humid August cloud. Yet Anna-Langston still fills it with gems. It’s certainly not a dull life, one full of heartbreaks big and small, but this tough sweet girl pulls it off with aplomb. It’s a treat from start to end. Langston has written rich, vivid characters, and painted a vibrant mosaic of a year in one young southern girl’s life. It’s a hard book to put down, and one you won’t want to end. I envy its future readers.”

What was the inspiration for your story?

A lot of this story came from a creative memoir class I took in North Carolina. It was one of the first writing classes I’d ever taken. I studied literature in college but I did not take writing classes. So, I wrote to the class prompts. My classmates loved these stories so I kept writing and they made me promise I’d complete the book. At some point, I decided to add in fictional scenes or change the chronology of events and at that point I switched it to fiction. Those classes were hard and honestly, I wanted to quit. My roommate said, “That’s exactly why you should keep taking the class.” She was right. My inspiration came from hearing the stories of my classmates and organizing the material I created every day.

Set the scene for Northern Mississippi in your story.

Well, I grew up in North Mississippi. It was an amazing place with staggering poverty at the time. The light slants low over the earth in Mississippi in the late summer in a way I’ve never witnessed anywhere else. It is a land of triumph and simplicity, a place where people knew their neighbors and talked to each other. Even back in the 90’s they still had party lines in Mississippi. For some reason, I thought that was awesome. They weren’t racing to catch up with technology. It is also partly set in Mexico City which is my favorite city on Earth.

What are Tupelo’s strengths and weaknesses?

I think her strength is her weakness to some degree. She is a little girl who can survive anything but she has to get to the point where she steps out of that circle and begins to thrive. Her strength is her ability to love and constantly find the good in people. She is incredibly resilient and likeable. Her weaknesses really come from outside of her in the form of her mother’s addictions.

How long did it take to write your story and what was your process?

This book is comprised of sections cut from another book. I wrote a book entitled Skinny Dipping in a Dirty Pond. That book was four hundred pages long and geared more to adults. That book was optioned and turned into a screenplay. In the process of rewriting the book and creating the screenplay a lot was cut, changed, enriched, deepened. It left me with a lot of excess material. One day I compiled all the cut sections and chapters and realized it had a real theme and plot. What had been cut was similar in tone and rising action. So, from the cutting room floor Tupelo Honey began to rise. The actual book took me about three or four weeks to rewrite and put together from that point.

Who designed your book cover?

Me. I designed the cover. Photography and design are skills I’ve possessed for a long time. I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like and kept searching and creating drafts. Finally, I put together the cover and paid a graphic design artist in Africa to do the layout on the back.

Where can readers buy your book?

Tupelo Honey is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and it is available for instant purchase via Kindle and Nook.

A grand adventure with the new middle grade and YA books I’ve just finished. These books are particularly electric and filled with great energy and excitement. My agent is shopping them around now. I’m involved in a few film projects. I’m always working on about five projects at a time. Just about everything I create is for a middle grade or young adult audience.

Is there a message you would like to give to your readers?

I LOVE writing for YOU! I love, love, love it. I love entertaining people and bringing laughs and tears into a reader’s life. Okay, the good kinda tears. 🙂 I love it when I am totally swept up in a story, when the world quietly slips away. I aim to accomplish this with my readers. Readers are the lifeblood of the publishing world.

We are delighted that Stephanie has chosen to interview Lis Anna-Langston who is the author of, Tupelo Honey, our medallion honoree at indieBRAG. To be awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion ®, a book must receive unanimous approval by a group of our readers. It is a daunting hurdle and it serves to reaffirm that a book such as, Tupelo Honey, merits the investment of a reader’s time and money.

I’d like to welcome Award Winning B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree Joan Fallon today. Joan was born in Dumfries, Scotland but spent most of her adult life in England. Teacher, management trainer and business woman, she moved to Spain at the beginning of the new millennium and became a writer. Her first published work was a social history, ‘Daughters of Spain’, inspired by the women she met in her adopted home. Her subsequent books too have grown out of her experiences living and working in Spain. She is especially interested in Spanish history and has set her novels in periods as distinct as the Golden Age of the Moorish conquest and the Spanish Civil War. She is a member of the Society of Authors and the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Hi, Joan! Thank you for visiting with me today. Please tell me how you discovered indieBRAG.

Well actually it was Helen Hollick, the lady who set up Discovering Diamonds, who recommended IndieBRAG to me. I first got to know her when she was working for the Historical Novel Review Society a few years ago.

I love your book cover! Tell me about your story, The Shining City.

The novel is set in southern Spain in the mid tenth century. The country is ruled by al-Rahman III, who is celebrating the fact that he has just pronounced himself caliph of al-Andalus by building a new palace/city, Madinat al-Zahra. Many of his subjects have flocked to this new city looking for work and among them is a potter called Qasim and his family. Qasim is running away from his past and hoping to build a new future in Madinat al-Zahra, where he has taken on a new identity. Even his sons do not know his history.

The woman on the cover of the books is supposed to represent one of the leading characters in the novel. She is Jawhara, one of the caliph’s concubines. She was originally from Saxony and was captured by Viking raiders and sold as a slave to the caliph of al-Andalus. She is very beautiful and one day she is spotted by Omar, the youngest son of Qasim the potter. He falls desperately in love with her and becomes obsessed with seeing her even though he knows it is forbidden on pain of death.

One night he breaks into the harem to meet her but it does not go well. His father is horrified at what he has done and the consequences for everyone are severe. I can’t tell you any more without spoiling the story for you.

What fascinates you most about the period in history you have written about?

As you know, I live in southern Spain and over the years I have become fascinated with the country and its history. The Moors lived in Spain for 700 years and their influence is everywhere – in the architecture, the language, the food and the culture. So naturally I was drawn to learning more about them. I chose the tenth century because it was the Moors Golden Age. Never before nor after, did the country have such a reputation for wealth, culture and learning, nor was it so egalitarian. It was the most educated country in the western world and people flocked from all parts of Europe to its universities and libraries.

Tell me a little about Qasim. Was he a real person in history or fictional? What are his strengths and weaknesses?

No, Qasim isn’t a real character but he is based on real people. For example, the past he is hiding is based on a real man called Omar ibn Hafsun, one of the rebels who fought against al-Rahman III. Qasim is a potter who moved to Madinat al-Zahra, as many other artisans and workmen did at the time. The caliph encouraged people to move out of Córdoba and settle in Madinat al-Zahra by offering them the money to build a house. It was an offer too good to miss and thousands of people moved to the new city. So, I made Qasim one of them.

Qasim’s strengths lie in his strong religious beliefs and his love for his family. He is a man of honour. He treats his wife as an equal – almost. His weaknesses are that he is not flexible enough when faced with his son’s mistake.

Describe the city for me.

Madinat al-Zahra is in ruins now. But it is believed to have been a wonderful place with street lighting, paved roads, running water and public bath houses. I think the best way I can describe it to you is to let Omar tell you what he related to his nephew when he was an old man:

‘Our ruler, Abd al-Rahman III, wanted to build a city-palace worthy of the title of Khalifa so he sent his engineers and architects out to find the perfect location. And they did. They found a spot in the foothills of the Sierra Moreno, green, fertile, sheltered from the north winds, with as much water as you could wish for, yet set high enough above the plain so that you would be able to see anyone approaching. From there you could see across the valley of the Guadalquivir to Córdoba and beyond.’

‘It was indeed the Shining City. When visitors entered through the Grand Portico, passing beneath its enormous, red and white arches, when they climbed the ramped streets that were paved with blocks of dark mountain stone, passing the lines of uniformed guards in their scarlet jackets and the richly robed civil servants that flanked their way, when they reached the royal residence and saw the golden inlay on the ceilings, the marble pillars, the richly woven rugs scattered across the floors and the brilliant silk tapestries, when they saw the moving tank of mercury in the great reception pavilion that caught the sunlight and dazzled all who beheld it, then they indeed knew that they were in the Shining City.’

How did you come to write this story?

Back in the year 2000 I went to an exhibition in Madinat al-Zahra. I knew nothing about the place before that and I was fascinated by its history, and particularly by the fact that the city lasted no more than 75 years. I knew that one day I would write a story about it.

What is a tradition the people have in this civilization?

At that time Moorish civilisation was far more advanced than the rest of Europe. The majority of people were educated, including women. Women were allowed to work, to go to universities, to own property, to have careers such a doctors and scribes.

It was a multi-religious society. The ruling class were of course Muslims, but both Christians and Jews were allowed to worship their own faith, pursue careers in government and live their own lives. They were not however allowed to try to convert any Muslims to their faith. It was a society that also relied on slaves – but the slaves were non-believers. If a slave converted to Islam he regained his freedom.

Who designed your book cover?

A delightful woman called Rachel Lawston of Lawston Designs. She has designed a number of covers for me now and has a knack for getting just the right feel for the book (without having read it!)

Where can readers buy your book?

The Shining City is the first book in The al-Andalus series. All the books in the series are available on Amazon, from Barnes and Noble and other bookshops, both on-line and in the High Street.

Is there a message you would like to give to your readers?

Only this. Whether you prefer to read ebooks or paperbacks, never stop reading and encourage any children in your lives to read as much as they can. I worry that people are drifting away from the written word now that there are so many alternatives available to them. I’d like young people to realise that there is nothing so satisfying as reading a good book and becoming completely engrossed in the characters and the story.

We are delighted that Stephanie has chosen to interview Joan Fallon who is the author of, THE GOLDEN CITY, our medallion honoree at indieBRAG. To be awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion ®, a book must receive unanimous approval by a group of our readers. It is a daunting hurdle and it serves to reaffirm that a book such as, THE GOLDEN CITY, merits the investment of a reader’s time and money.

I’d like to welcome B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree Author Jim Andersen to Layered Pages today. Shortly after the walk Jim quit his job at the paper mill and moved to Austin, Nevada where he lived for 32 years. While in Austin–chronicled in his first book ‘Lost in Austin’ (University of Nevada Press, 2009)–he worked various jobs, finally settling into positions of deputy sheriff for eleven years and Justice of the Peace for twelve. Jim is currently retired and living in Pahrump, Nevada, with his wife of 30 years, Val. He has one daughter, two stepsons and a cat.

Thank you for talking with me today, Jim. How did you discover indieBRAG?

Purely by chance. I was looking into ways I might promote the book and just came across indieBrag on one of the searches. It looked and sounded professional, and their function was clearly stated, short and to the point, all of which appealed to me.

How has your self-publishing journey been thus far?

Swift. My other book was published by a University Press and took three years from the time it was accepted to the day it was printed. I mean we’re burnin’ daylight here, and none of us know how much daylight we’ve got left to burn so that’s certainly a consideration. The other thing I liked was the latitude I was given. I really did have the final say on everything from the cover design to the punctuation. The only thing I would have changed would be the photos accompanying the text. For some reason, I thought the publisher would edit them a little as to focus and lighting. However, I had total control over that too even though I wasn’t aware of it, so it wasn’t their fault. The pictures are acceptable, they just aren’t as grabbing as they could have been.

Please tell me about your book, Sometimes a Great Notion…Isn’t, so much.

The ‘Great Notion’ was to get listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, a fad that swept the nation in the manner of the ‘pet rock’ craze or the Macarena dance. In the late sixties, everybody was talking about the record book and trying to find some way to get listed. I came up with the idea of walking from 14,496′ Mt. Whitney to Death Valley’s Badwater, at 282 feet below sea level; until Alaska joined the Union in 1959 those were the highest and lowest points in the entire United States. My book documents the seven-day 143-mile trek I and three of my friends made, with the help of a support party and a lot of moleskin.

Would you undertake a challenge like that again?

Not likely.

What is one of the high points of this journey?

Mt. Whitney. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.) I suppose the high point would be early in the walk, on the second day from Whitney. We’d hiked a bit off course to get to a phone booth located in the old town of Keeler, where I called home and my stepdaughter told me the Oakland Tribune newspaper had run a Sunday article on our trip. It was from an interview done a couple weeks earlier and contained our picture and these final words which I still know by heart because they made such an impression on us; “If all goes well, four figures dressed in ghostly white will emerge from the shimmering desert near Badwater in eight to ten days.” Any thoughts of quitting that might have been skittering around the corners of our thoughts were expunged by that beckoning vision, at least for the time being.

Describe Death Valley.

It’s well-named. The summer heat out there itself holds a world record in the Guinness book–134° logged on July 10, 1913. A person can’t function very long, if at all, in that kind of heat. We didn’t measure the air temperature on our walk, but we did take a reading of the ground temperature with a meat thermometer in Panamint Valley and it was 165° just before noon. I would say the heat we encountered was just short of debilitating in Death Valley, even at night. And the walking surface out there was the worst on the trip–jagged rocks and salt pinnacles. If you’re already beat half to death, it’s a bad place to put yourself.

Did you and your friends meet others along the way and what was that like?

We met very few people once we hit the Mojave Desert. And outside of a ranger on Mt. Whitney, I don’t recall talking to anybody except a few drivers while we were walking the roads. They kept offering us a lift. You have no idea how hard that was to turn down. Our campsites we just set up whenever we got too tired to walk. We’d scouted the route and had several wide spots scoped out and we even used one or two of them. Nobody ever came around our camps.

What was your learning experience while writing this story?

Well I intended to keep a daily journal the entire trip so I wouldn’t have to trust to memory, but that sort of went by the wayside after a couple days, when the focus somehow shifted from keeping a record to just keeping upright, period. So, I did have to trust to memory which can be a little scary if you’re really concerned with getting the right happenings in the right order. I am sure of the book’s overall accuracy but I wouldn’t want to swear to the details. You just have to recall things the best you can and get on to the next page. So, I learned you should keep good notes if you intend to write about some event in particular.

Do you have any new writing projects in the works?

Not at the moment. My wife and I are in the process of moving to a new house in Nevada so I’m just too busy. There. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

Where can readers buy your book?

Amazon is about the only place at this time, but we hope to place them in both Mt. Whitney’s lodge and the visitor’s center at Furnace Creek. Hopefully, this interview may even help with that stuff.

We are delighted that Stephanie has chosen to interview Jim Andersen who is the author of, Sometimes a Great Notion…Isn’t, so much, our medallion honoree at indieBRAG. To be awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion ®, a book must receive unanimous approval by a group of our readers. It is a daunting hurdle and it serves to reaffirm that a book such as, Sometimes a Great Notion…Isn’t, so much, merits the investment of a reader’s time and money.

Thank you for talking with me today, Molly. Tell me how you discovered indieBRAG?

Hello Stephanie, it’s a pleasure to join you, thanks so much for the opportunity to talk about myself and my books! I heard about the indieBRAG program through my friend Virginia King, author and fellow B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree. Virginia is a staunch supporter of the program, and suggested I apply when I inquired about the Medallion on her book’s cover. I’m thrilled to have been chosen.

Please tell me a little about the premise of your book.

Mark of the Loon is about a single, semi-isolated, thirty-something female real estate agent who falls in love with a cottage, side-steps a potential relationship and several obstacles to buy it, then slowly discovers that the house is so much more than it appears to be on the surface. As she and college friend Gen Delacourt unravel the mysteries attached to the property, she examines her personal issues and (better late than never) embarks on a new chapter of her life. Every title in my Gen Delacourt series involves a mystery, but also reveals some level of personal growth on the part of the characters.

Tell me a little about Madison and her strengths and weaknesses.

Madison is strong, disciplined, knowledgeable, and resourceful, but afraid of getting too close to a man. She has great relationships with smart, supportive, funny women. She does what she says she will do. She’s not afraid of taking risks, unless that risk involves her heart.

What is some of the history that surrounds this story?

The plot involves WWII, an Irish spy, Nazi looting, and Hitler’s plan to destroy the economics of the US and the UK by flooding the market with counterfeit bills.

How did you come to write this story and how many books will be in this series?

I’m an avid reader of mysteries and I love great writing, but over the years I grew tired of all the graphic gore and serial killers and child predators and unnecessary sex that so many authors depend on. So I set out to write a book that did not incorporate those things. The plot grew in my mind while my dog and I were on our daily walks, something I still rely on to hash things out as I’m writing.

Since then, I’ve grown the series to include eight titles with plots that avoid all the above-mentioned elements. I’m planning at least twelve Gen Delacourt Mysteries, then I’ll write a few standalones and/or another series that spin off a couple of Gen’s secondary characters I’ve grown to love.

What is the easiest and most difficult part of writing a series?

The most fabulous part by far is getting to know and understand characters so well that I know exactly what they’ll say and how they’ll react in most situations. It’s like having invisible friends! The challenging part, especially since I avoid many typical plot situations (sex, cursing, gore) is coming up with plausible cases and situations for my characters to react to. So far I’ve had great good fortune making this happen. I have two future book ideas in my head, and I also keep a file of real-life articles about weird and wacky stuff that might prove interesting for future story lines and characters.

How long did it take for you to write your story and what was your process?

I began LOON in 2009 when I was working full time, and it took a year to complete the first rough draft. A dozen full-book edits later it was published in 2012, then I edited the manuscript again in 2013. From 2014-2015 I wrote like a madwoman, publishing four more titles, then slowed a bit. Eight are available at this writing. My goal now is to publish two new titles a year.

I have a marketing background and have always done a lot of business-related writing. I wrote narrative poetry when I was in high school. I never planned to be a writer of fiction; not until I sent Mark of the Loon to a friend to read and she told me she couldn’t put it down. I chose to believe her and embarked on a new path.

What are some of the writing tools you have learned along that way that has helped you?

I’m a panster at heart, which means I don’t know how a book will end until I’m at least halfway there. At first, I wrote knowing nothing about future events in the plot. But having a clue about what’s going to happen before it does helps an author write faster, so now I do a bit of outlining before each book, usually the first 10 chapters or so. That way I have to backtrack less, revise less, and it gives me an opportunity to think up cool scenes I might otherwise miss. Outlining is one of the best production-boosting tools I’ve learned.

Is there a particular message you would like to give to your readers?

I write mystery novels that include elements of cozy mysteries and women’s fiction. So far, all these stories are set in California. They each feature strong, independent female characters who are professional and/or amateur sleuths. My novels are both character and plot-driven, include both friend and romantic relationship elements, but no graphic sex or gore. My protagonists are flawed and smart and imperfect but manage to improve, both personally and professionally, in some way, through every story line. Think whodunit suspense solved by smart women!

We are delighted that Stephanie has chosen to interview Molly Greene who is the author of, Mark of the Loon, our medallion honoree at indieBRAG. To be awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion ®, a book must receive unanimous approval by a group of our readers. It is a daunting hurdle and it serves to reaffirm that a book such as, Mark of the Loon, merits the investment of a reader’s time and money.

I’d like to welcome award winning author J.F. Rogers today. J.F. armors up in the Word of truth daily to battle as a church office administrator, a wife, and a mom with a Bachelor’s Degree in Behavioral Science. She is a health nut, a recovered troubled teen, and is consistently inconsistent. But, most importantly, she is a believer in the one true God and can say with certainty—you are loved.

Thank you for chatting with me today, J.F.! Please tell me how you discovered indieBRAG.

Thanks, Stephanie! This is my first interview. So, exciting…

I discovered IndieBRAG through K.M. Weiland’s blog Helping Writers Become Authors. She wrote a post wrapping up 2016 and noted awards her novels had received. One was the BRAG Medallion.

Astray is a spiritual journey. Fallon is a troubled teen with little to no love in her life. She’s existing. The story unfolds on her 17th birthday when she receives a necklace that belonged to her deceased mother. That very day, she’s chased by a wolf through the woods, knocks herself unconscious running into a branch, and wakes in another realm. In Ariboslia she encounters strange creatures, learns more about herself and finds something she’s always longed for—family. But she also must face the vampire-like creatures, fasgadair, that are killing or enslaving the people, farming them for their blood. Fallon must face the prophecy that devastated her family and destroy the fasgadair’s leader, her uncle. But it’s something she can’t do alone, and there is much she must learn along the way.

How did you come up with the title for your book?

Astray was originally entitled Ariboslia, for the world I’d created. But once I realized it was going to be a series, Ariboslia became the name of the series. I came up with Astray, Adrift, and Aloft for the titles within the series. Astray is fitting for the first novel because Fallon is lost. Off the path. Though she hasn’t a clue. Once trapped in Ariboslia she truly understands just how lost she is. But that’s the starting point for finding her way.

Who designed your book cover?

I came up with the concept and found the pictures and fonts. Unfortunately, I don’t know photoshop…yet. So my friend, Kara May LaPierre, lent her amazing graphic design skills to create the cover.

What age is this story geared towards?

Astray was intended for teen/young adult girls. Interestingly enough, it seems to appeal most to middle-aged women. I’ve received great feedback from men too.

Please tell me a little about Fallon Webb and how you came up with that name.

The majority of the names in Astray are Irish/Gaelic. I get the names from baby name websites. I try to find names with meanings that fit the character. In Fallon’s case, I liked the sound of it for multiple reasons. For one, it sounds like fallen…which she was. The other I don’t want to give away since it may be a spoiler to any potential readers out there. I chose her last name, Webb, because as I was envisioning her story and her backstory, delving into her family and their past, I found so many connections…like a web.

What is one of the skills she must learn for her quest?

Fallon must learn to trust. She comes from a broken family, raised by a grandmother who resents her. She has only one friend, Stacy. Despite their friendship, Fallon doesn’t fully trust Stacy either. She trusts no one.

How did you come to write this story?

That is a long story. The idea first came to me back in high school, sparked by Queensryche’s song Silent Lucidity. “There’s a place I like to hide, a doorway that I run through in the night.” Those words, along with the haunting melody, stirred my imagination about other worlds. I tried to write the story many times over the years, but each attempt failed. Much later, a few years following my divorce, after I’d lost my job and all seemed hopeless, I returned to Christ. At that point, the book practically wrote itself.

What was your writing process and how long did it take to write your story?

Try as I might to be an outliner, I’ve come to accept the fact that I’m a pantser. I write by sitting down and writing by the seat of my pants. Of course, the final period on the final sentence in the final paragraph isn’t the end. Many readers provided feedback and I made many adjustments. My critique partners went through each chapter. And I made many more adjustments. Then my editor went over it which resulted in a whole slew of adjustments. Then I took the advice of a publisher, Steve Laube, and added 20, 000 more words and repeated the process… I’d say it took almost a year to write. A couple of years to edit. Another couple of years to add another 20K words and critique/edit again. Then a couple of years sitting on it, discouraged, before finally self-publishing it. In other words, a long time.

Where can readers buy your book?

Astray is available in paperback and e-book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It’s also available as e-book in iTunes, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Inkterra, Smashwords, !ndigo, and Mondadori.

How did you get into writing in the Fantasy genre?

Fantasy is the best! I love reading books of many genres. But to me, reading is an escape from reality. When I escape, I want to be transported into another world that no amount of money could allow me to visit. I want to enter the world of someone’s imagination. That is what I hope to do for my readers.

How many books will be in this series?

I plan on having three in this series. I may go back and write prequels since there is so much backstory that will never make it into these books. And Fallon’s parents and grandparents have quite fascinating stories as well. Perhaps I should make them known…

How did you come to be a writer?

I’ve wanted to write all my life. It’s my escape. When I was little I would write stories about secret passageways to lands full of candy. As much as I love reading other peoples’ stories, I love being able to escape, at any time, into my own imagination. It’s a gift God has given me…as protection, for healing, and for pure enjoyment.

We are delighted that Stephanie has chosen to interview J.F. Rogers who is the author of, Astray, our medallion honoree at indieBRAG. To be awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion ®, a book must receive unanimous approval by a group of our readers. It is a daunting hurdle and it serves to reaffirm that a book such as, Astray, merits the investment of a reader’s time and money.

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As you all are aware of this summer I am selecting award winning books from the indieBRAG Library to add to my reading pile and to feature on Layered Pages. Today I have selected Flank Street. I love a good thriller and this one looks fantastic! If you would like to purchase this story, click on the title and it will take you directly to the indieBRAG, where you will see the buying links.

IndieBRAG’s mission is to discover talented self-published authors and help them give their work the attention and recognition it deserves. Their primary focus is fiction across a wide range of genres; however, they selectively consider non-fiction books.

Authors, if you feel your book can meet indieBRAG’s high standards, they encourage you to nominate it, but they cannot make any guarantees that it will pass either the initial screening or the subsequent review by their readers. On average, only 10-15% of the books they consider are awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion and are presented on their website and promoted on various social media sites.

Conversely, they do not make public the titles of any books or the names of their authors that have been reviewed but were not selected to receive a B.R.A.G. Medallion.

This award is an honor indeed!

Synopsis

I didn’t set out to write about Micky, or Carol, come to that… but this is how it happened.
The rain was falling steadily, running down the small, below ground-level window, which is the only source of natural light in the boiler-room where I write. For some obscure reason it reminded me of a rain-soaked street in Sydney, Australia; a street I’ve walked down many times, both wet and dry.

As I held that image in the back of my eyelids, a man appeared. Yellow streetlights reflected from the wet tarmac; he walked in the shadow of the plane trees, pulling his hood up against the unrelenting rain. He stopped, leaned against a tree, and waited. Right at that moment, I knew what I had to do.

I didn’t know Micky, but I’ve known guys like him, and so his character was soon defined; a grifter that could never amount to much without living in the shadows.

I hope you enjoy reading Flank Street, I certainly had fun writing it, and missed the daily interactions with Micky and Carol when it was finished. And I hope that one day I can sit and have a drink with them again… one day.

~~~~~~~~~

When Micky DeWitt sails into Sydney, Australia, his only assets are a run-down yacht, his wits, and the skills he’s picked up as a dedicated career criminal.

Shiftless, cynical and dishonest, even with himself, Micky takes a job as a barman in Sydney’s seedy red light district of Kings Cross. He’s a chameleon, seeing himself as both master criminal and chilled-out world sailor. He wants a life on Easy Street, is driven by the desire to ‘get away with it,’ and addicted to the adrenaline rush that comes with that life.

Carol Todd is turned on by money and risk-taking. For Carol, there’s no such thing as “enough”. Being an escort to a few wealthy clients is just a means to an end. A couple of underworld connections help, too. But what she needs for her latest con is a fall guy—someone she can use and lose once she’s done with him. And Micky DeWitt looks like the perfect man to fall into her sultry, seductive honey trap.
Playing to Micky’s twisted sense of chivalry, Carol leads him into a hedonistic free-fall. As Micky’s life spins out of control it doesn’t take long to graduate from burglary to arson, then accessory to murder. And no matter which way he moves, someone’s going to get hurt… or die.

I’ve always written, as far back as I can recall anyway. Until 2011, that writing was just for me, or as rambling letters to friends, and travelogues to family. I never thought about why, or if others did similarly, and the thought of publishing never entered my head. Since I left England in 1979, I’ve travelled widely, collecting experiences, people, and places as I did so. From the blood-soaked streets of Kampala, the polluted dust bowls of the Sahara, or the pristine ice floes of the Antarctic, I’ve gathered and filed them away. Some have recently squeezed through the bars of insecurity and are now at large in the pages of my first four novels. Others await their future fates.

Although I grew up in Norfolk, UK, I never felt truly at home until I lived in Australia, and that is no doubt the reason my first published novels are set there. All of my books have some element of fact in them. I guess it’s hard for any writer not to include events from their life. Our experiences shape our thoughts, and the words and actions of our characters.
I sometimes wish I’d become a novelist earlier in life, but then if I had, I wouldn’t have the range of characters and events that I do.

After spending much of my adult life travelling, I now live in a remote forest house in Germany with two Mexican dogs, an Icelandic horse, six French hens, and a mermaid who I found at a beach on the north coast of Bequia.

Do you love to read and would like to be part of a reading group who selects B.R.A.G. Medallion Honorees?

If you are an avid bookworm, we invite you to become part of the indieBRAG B.R.A.G. Medallion global reader team. In this program, you’ll tell us a bit about yourself and the genres you enjoy reading. We’ll then provide you with digital versions of self-published books (ebooks), using the gifting process at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com, and ask for your honest evaluation.

Your evaluation will be combined with those from other readers who read the same book, to help us determine if that author will be awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion, which has become a recognized mark of excellence within the self-published book industry.

To apply you must be eighteen years of age or older, and have at least graduated from high school. You must also have an ebook reader, or be able to download ebooks onto your computer, tablet, or smartphone. If you meet these requirements and would like to apply, please fill out the form below. We will give your application prompt attention and respond to you within two weeks.

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Writing is a time honored moment. When the writer breathes life into the characters and gives them a place in the reader’s heart. Characters capture us in their embrace and we take refuge in their lives in a world of uncertainties. -Stephanie M. Hopkins

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